Johnny On The Spot: Not bold enough. Planet Blue can be more than reassured that City now pass a football on the same level playing field as united across every department. Any rag who says otherwise is deluded...But. Time and again this season, managers have taken on the rags with the accent on making sure of not getting beaten, almost doffing the cap of respect to united's history rather than having a go at what's stood in front of them. This has led to the rags eeking out results repeatedly...This is an approach that Roberto Mancini adopted tonight despite the wealth of resources at his disposal...united's bench has to be the weakest I have ever seen in a modern day derby and their midfield is a pale shadow of the one that bossed games throughout entire seasons in years gone by...Yet City, playing well within themselves, threatened to make them look like world beaters in choosing to stand off and invite them on...Mark Hughes and Mancio opted for similar last season but we had poorer full backs meaning tonight's gasping Scholes couldn't pick his killer ball in behind our defence...When City did get through and at them, we often took the wrong option at the crucial moment or failed to shoot on sight. Immensely frustrating for us all as we know we have the tools to beat anyone in this league...That said, on the positive, it will be a long season and we now have a 4 point cushion in 4th place and with each game that passes the squad will gel further...as for united, we looked the more athletic side tonight and I suggest that should they fail to recruit heavily in January as the pitches get heavier, should someone dare to have a right go at their side they will ship defeats without a doubt. It also cannot be easy for a united support to realise that the days of thrashing liddle ciddy are over.

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As I said on the boards, the media will pan us for being negative but what about them? We had the only good chance of the match and they took off an attacker for attacker, proving that they "didn't want to lose" more than "they wanted to win". If we had someone like Stephen Gerrard (dare I say, a fit Michael Johnson) in Yaya Toure's role, it may have made us a bit less hapless going forward though.

Well it was dull, but as Stu says, what about them? Every time Silva got anywhere near their box there were at least 4 red shirts surrounding him. I can understand Mancini's caution in this match, as a loss would have really heaped the pressure on - but the rags were clearly desparate not to lose! P.S. Berbatov is AWFUL!

Very cat and mouse, neither team wanted to lose and it was painfully obvious. Good solid team display despite the frustrating tactics. Agreed Stu about Yaya, he offered very little from an attacking sense but to his credit marshalled Scholes well, never let him have the space to play in.

You were both negative but i can understand as i wouldnt want to lose against my rival. I think that utd looked the most likely to score the last 15 minutes but i can definately see that you have closed the gap on utd in terms of quality.